2025-26 Productions

Here you'll find past department productions for each academic year. We're happy to share our work with you!

Spring 2026: Spring Dance Concert

Three nights: April 29th and 30th and May 2nd (no show on May 1st). 7:30 p.m. in Pickard Theater.

Bowdoin College's end-of-semester dance show! These shows are always creative, always fun - and have great music! Free and open to the public.

The classes Introduction to Caribbean Dances and Cultures (with Adanna "Dr. J" Jones), Intermediate Improvisation and Partnering (with Aretha Aoki), Introduction to Modern Dance and Advanced Repertory and Performance (with Gwyneth Jones) performed.

Sponsored by the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts and the June Vail Fund for Dance.

Happy student leaping over other student in exuberant move.

Person in suit wearing large square mask with a sad face painted on, against a bright blue background. — Photo by Alice Chacon Photography

Spring 2026: New Voices by Lou Sydel '22

April 23th - 3:00 p.m. - Studio 108 in Memorial Hall

In 1939, scientists at The World’s Fair presented The Voder (Voice Operation Demonstrator), an instrument made to electronically produce human speech sounds. These days we carry intricate voice mimicry technologies around in our pockets.

New Voices peers into the history of technologically generated voices. One dancer embodies a range of characters, from the Voder to Alexa, pairing gestures with uncanny audio. This piece is a meditation on the connections between voice and gender, and the trans experience of building a new voice. There will be puppets, masks, big suits, and maybe a surprise appearance from a robot clown… What can we learn about ourselves by looking at how we interact with voice assistant technology?

Poster image showing rustic boat on Maine coast, with forest behind the water.

Spring 2026: Nicolestice, an original play by Colette Carrillo '26

April 10th - 7:00 p.m. - Wish Theater

Following their college graduation, Autumn and Sebastian receive a letter from their old friend Nicole, whom they haven't heard from since she dropped out and moved to a remote private island. She claims that she'd like to celebrate their accomplishment, but is this her only motive?

Honors Project by Colette Carrillo. Supported by the Ray Rutan Fund for the Performing Arts.

Spring 2026: An Evening with Bowdoin alum George Ellzey '13

Chicago-based filmmaker, director, and producer known for award-winning shorts like Cottage Grove and SWITCHIN'. April 9th - 7:30 p.m. - Mills Hall - Room 129 Cinema

An Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Telly Award–winning director, George will screen his short films Cottage Grove and two works in progress, Accessories and Closed Mouths, followed by a Q&A session.

The screening/Q&A session is free and open to the public; no tickets needed - seating is first-come, first-served.

Presented by the Departments of Theater and Dance, English and Cinema Studies.

Poster depicting scenes from the show with men dancing together — Photos by Sammy Wiedethal

Spring 2026: Bunk Beds

Performed by BIG BOY DANCE

April 3rd and 4th - 7:30 p.m. - Wish Theater

Bunk Beds is a new response in a series of choreographic works by Tristan Koepke | Big Boy Dance inspired by the creative and amorous relationship between Merce Cunningham and John Cage, social media thirst traps, queer melancholia, speculative masculinities, and romance novel tropes. Building on Big Boy Dance's recent performances, There’s Only One Bed (2023) and There’s More Than One Bed (2024), and drawing from Andie Nordgren’s manifesto for relationship anarchy, Bunk Beds asks what happens when creative process, love, and friendship accumulate and reverberate over time. Seeking to reframe and transcend conventional narratives of Cunningham and Cage’s twentieth century avant-guard collaborations, which often diminish their queer romance and radicalism, Bunk Beds catalyzes the ways in which LGBTQ+ artistic legacies are created, preserved, embodied, and reimagined.

Sponsored by the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts and the June Vail Fund for Dance.

Photo showing the four different students who played the central role as Narrator of the play.

Spring 2026: Every Brilliant Thing

By Duncan Macmillan

With Jonny Donahoe

Directed by Lindsay Livingston

February 26 & 27 at 7:30 p.m. / February 28 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. / Wish Theater in Memorial Hall

Every Brilliant Thing is an exhilarating and heartwarming journey through one person’s life and the many reasons they find to remain hopeful. Told through a list of every beautiful, brilliant, joyful thing that makes life worth living, this is a theatrical experience unlike any other.

In each performance at Bowdoin College, the Narrator will be played by a different student actor, offering four distinct points of view of the same story. Performers are:
Eve Foley (’28)
Franceska Drejaj (’27)
Michael Bagnoli (’26)
Rithmaka Karunadhara (’26)

Content Advisory: Every Brilliant Thing contains themes of suicide and depression. The production has partnered with the Bowdoin Counseling Center and Active Minds to offer mental health resources and support.

Recommended for ages 12 and up

Sponsored by the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts.

Fall 2025: December Dance Concert

December 4-6, 2025 - Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall

Choregraphed by dance faculty Aretha Aoki, Adanna Jones, Gwyneth Jones and guest choreographer Mariana Valencia.

Sponsored by the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts and the June Vail Fund for Dance

Costume design by Lily Prentice

Costume design for "Peripheral": Mariana Valencia

Lighting design by Gregg Carville

Photos by Alex Cornell du Houx

Performances:

Physical Exam. Modern II: Repertory and Performance (Gwyneth Jones). Performers: Amelia Alpren, Ruby Cosgrove, Charlie Meyer, Navya Arora, Maya Willoughby

Peripheral. Advanced Modern Dance (Mariana Valencia). Performed by: Sara Coughlin, Ray Mitchell, Morgan Ouellette, Saniya Ridley, Jack Twining

... we are but just elements. Advanced Afro-Modern: Dancing Towards Social Change (Adanna Jones). Performers: Fernanda Rodas, Lex Davis, Iran Pacheco Martinez

What precedes care. Advanced Modern Dance (Aretha Aoki). Dance-artists: Sara Coughlin, Ray Mitchell, Morgan Ouellette, Saniya Ridley, Jack Twining

Cotillion. Introduction to Modern Dance (Gwyneth Jones). Dancers: Caroline Berney, Analisa Delgado, Kiana Gonzalez, Nikki Harris, Feley Hassan, Anita Mahabir, Sophie McDevitt, Xan Middents, Jane Mautz, Declan O’Connell, John Schubert, Kate Weed, Jasmine Zhang

Dancers in black against blue background.

Dancers in a row against yellow background.

Dancers in formation against blue background.

Three dancers in colorful flowing veils.

Five dancers in a line, looking forward.

Five dancers; two reaching out towards each other with three more in background.

Dancers in symmetry wearing colorful shirts.

Two dancers holding hands with row of dancers in background

Dancer in suit singing under mirror ball with row of dancers in background.

Two people singing while people dance behind them with balloons around them.

Fall 2025: Guys and Dolls

A Musical Fable of Broadway - Based on a Story and Characters of Damon Runyon

Music & Lyrics by Frank Loesser - Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

November 6-8, 2025 at Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall.

Directed by Jessica Pearson-Bleyer.

Music Director: Courtney Babbidge

CAST: Reynaldo Fuentez as Sky Masterson; Colette Carrillo - Sarah Brown; Zach Green - Nathan Detroit; Amaya Reddy - Miss Adelaine; Franceska Drejaj - Nicely Nicely Johnson; Declan O’Connell - Benny Southstreet; Jack Gilmore - Arvide Abernathy/Joey Biltmore; Hannah Satran - Agatha; Blake Covert - Calvin; Asher Feiles - Harry the Horse; Seamus Woodruff - Rusty Charlie; Kevin Lucy - Angie the Ox; Peyton Jones - General Matilda Cartwright; Anya Juneja - Big Jule; Hunter Hunt - Lt. Brannigan; Declan Scifres - Society Max; Saniya Ridley, Timmy Ignacio and Jack Twining as Dancers.

Scenic Designer: Anita Stewart

Costume Designer: Lily Prentice

Lighting Designer: Gregg Carville

Photographs by Kat Moraros Photography.

Guys and Dolls was presented by special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIshows.com

Sponsored by the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts.